The present invention relates to a new kind of skates to roll on the road or sliding on the ice. More particularly, it concerns a kind of skates able to offer, beyond the traditional one, a new way of skating, which is better and more complete than the previous one.
Making reference to the roller-skating, known systems are essentially of two kinds, namely the roller skate provided with two pairs of wheels, and the most recent inline roller-skate. Both the first one and the second one require, to obtain the advancement of the skater, a thrust movement by the legs which is diagonally outward directed, during said movement the foot sole remains parallel to the ground and the body balancing is helped by a synchronized motion of the arms, which are maintained in an almost extended position.
The above motive attitude is mainly made compulsory in view of the need of grasping the ground by friction, with a transverse thrust component on the wheels, and in view of the fact that the standard skate structure is comprised of an enbloc element requiring that the foot sole subjected to a stress, remains parallel to the ground, with the wheels in contact with the same.
These two requirements, which are common for all the known skates, impose the above characteristic movement of arms and legs, and during the running and acceleration phases, the stressed prone position of the body.
It is well evident that said movement on one side and the position of the body to obtain the same movement on the other side require remarkable physical force and remarkable balance, thus limiting the practice of this sport to a limited number of persons provided with these requisites.
It is therefore well clear the need to realize a new skating system that could be much more largely diffused, also among less skilled skaters or persons having a higher position rigidity and that could constitute a valid alternative,also as urban transportation system.
This needing is satisfied according to the present invention starting from the principle of better favoring the natural movement of limbs during deambulation, thus reducing the stress necessary to obtain the motion, and particularly making it possible to vary the diagonal motion of the legs into a movement according to the motion line direction in such a way to produce the correction of the trajectory from a zigzag trajectory into a substantially rectilinear trajectory, to improve the body position, making it much more erected and thus closer to the walking and running natural position, further obtaining the advantage of increasing the advancement speed and to be able to proceed also in much more crowded places, being the space required to proceed on narrower.
To realize said needing, it is advantageously provided according to the invention to realize a roller skate having centrally aligned wheels, or paired wheels, said roller-skate allowing to the foot to fold according to the natural walking about movement, and to provide the skate with an automatic locking system, coming in contact with the ground and being operative only when the foot folds during the thrusting action, in such a way that when the foot remains flat, said locking system is inactive and the skate behaving as a traditional skate, thus being possible the traditional skating technique, and to provide the same skate with stiffening elements allowing its lateral rigidity also between the foot resting portion and the ankle, to protect the same ankle.
It is therefore specific object of the present invention a three or four wheels skate, preferably an in-line skate, characterized in that it is comprised of a half-boot type inner footwear portion and of an outer rigid portion made up of a first tip front portion and of a second rear portion surrounding ankle and heel, within said first and second portions being housed said inner footwear portion; wherein said first front portion and said second rear portion of the skate are fixedly coupled each other by flexible coupling means of the lamina or spring kind, or by other means able to carry out the same functions, provided in correspondence of the underlying portion of the same in such a way to allow their movement and the automatic return to an alignment position; wherein said front and rear portions are provided with couples of vertical elements, perpendicularly provided with respect to said flexible coupling means, provided one within the others, and within each one of said couples of vertical elements wheel means are provided, connected with the same by pin means.
Advantageously, according to the invention, said half-boot inner footwear portion, said front and rear portions coupled by the flexible element, as well as said portions perpendicular with respect to said first and second portions constitute a sole flexible, elastic and loose element, allowing to the foot to fold forward and to the skate to follow its movement, articulating to automatically assume again its attitude as soon as the foot, that has executed the thrust, detaches from the ground.
Furthermore, in view of the particular configuration of the perpendicular elements starting from said front element and from said rear element, they have elongated portions projecting forward and backward, respectively, and rotating one with respect to the other one, maintaining the contact, and remaining cinematically associated even when the foot is folded during the thrust phase on the two front wheels, and the rear wheels detach from the ground.
In this way, the necessary cinematic rigidity of the two elements along the vertical plane is guaranteed and the integrity of the ankle is saved.
Always according to the invention, it is advantageously provided to fix the most inner wheel of the front element lifted with respect to the other three wheels, in such a way that when the skate is flat (and the foot is not folded), three wheels only are in contact with the ground, thus guaranteeing the perfect stability of the same skate.
Further, according to the invention, it is provided to realize the lamina plane slightly parallel with respect to the horizontal plane, in such a way that the same is parallel with respect to the ground when the foot folds.
Further, according to the invention, said lifted inner wheel provided in the front element is of the so called xe2x80x9cfree wheelxe2x80x9d kind, and thus realized in such a way to rotate only according to a direction, namely in an anticlockwise direction in such a way to allow the thrusting action when, subjected to the foot weight, comes in contact with the ground.
Always according to the invention, it is advantageously provided to realize a skate of the above kind provided with three wheels.
In this embodiment, the wheels are always all in contact with the ground and, taking into consideration the fact that the central wheel is a xe2x80x9cfree-wheelxe2x80x9d, the skate cannot rotate in a reverse direction, both when the foot is folded during the thrust and when the foot is flat, resting on all the wheels.
It is therefore specific object of this second embodiment a skate, characterized in that it is comprised of a half-boot type inner footwear portion and of an outer rigid portion made up of a first tip front portion and of a second rear portion surrounding ankle and heel, within said first and second portions being housed said inner footwear portion; wherein said first front portion and said second rear portion of the skate are fixedly coupled each other by flexible coupling means of the lamina or spring kind, provided in correspondence of the underlying portion of the same in such a way to allow their flexional movement; wherein said front and rear portions are provided with vertical elements, perpendicularly provided with respect to said flexible coupling means, wherein said vertical elements are provided with prolongation elements engaged each other, within said front vertical means a first and a second aligned wheels are provided, and wherein within said rear vertical means a third wheel is provided at the end.
Always according to the invention, said first, second and third wheel are fixed to said rear and front vertical elements at the same height in such a way to be in contact with the ground also when the foot is not folded during the thrust.
Further, also in this embodiment providing three aligned wheels, said central wheel is of the xe2x80x9cfree-wheelxe2x80x9d kind, thus avoiding the reverse motion of the skate.
Always according to the invention, said front and rear vertical elements can be provided with intradorsal turn-up or ribs or cambers to ensure the required stability and rigidity.
A further embodiment of the present invention concerns a use of the same as ice skate and is characterized in that it employs the same advancement system in the same direction of the obtained motion, thus allowing to the foot to fold during the thrust phase and to the skate to grasp the ice without sliding backward.
It is therefore specific object of the present invention a further embodiment of an ice skate, characterized in that it comprises a half-boot type inner footwear portion and of an outer rigid portion made up of a first tip front portion and of a second rear portion surrounding ankle and heel, within said first and second portions being housed said inner footwear portion; wherein said front portion and said rear portion are fixedly coupled each other by flexible coupling means in such a way to allow their flexional movement and the complete folding of the foot; wherein said front and rear portions are provided with vertical elements, within which the front portion of the sliding blade is housed, wherein said sliding blade is associated with said front vertical elements by pin means; wherein said blade is contained within rear vertical means, wherein coil spring means are associated with said pin element to maintain said blade in contact with the rear portion also when the skate is not in contact with the ice; and wherein locking means of the tooth kind are provided to allow the locking of the skate on the ice during the thrust.
Always according to the invention, said tooth kind locking means are provided within the inner portion of each of said vertical elements of the front portion in such a way to surmount like a bridge said blade element.
Further, always according to the invention, said locking elements of the tooth kind are fixed to said vertical elements in such a position to avoid that they engage the ice when the skate is moving along a plane, but only when the foot is folded during the thrust.
In fact, in this situation, the rear portion lifts and the front portion rotates backwardly with respect to said coupling pin means until said tooth locking means come in contact with the ice preventing that the skate slides backward and incising the ice only as necessary and programmed since the tooth, beyond an established lowering value meets the bearing blade with its lower portion and does not further advance.
According to an advantageous solution provided in the invention, said tooth kind locking element is prevented to rotate forward by the presence of the vertical elements of the front portion against which it abuts, and is maintained in the position by elastic means preventing noxious vibrations.